


the one thing she can't deliver

by qualapec



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/M, References to Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-16 21:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/866624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/qualapec/pseuds/qualapec
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Avengers (2012). "Natasha thinks she owes him; he didn't mean to claim that debt."</p>
            </blockquote>





	the one thing she can't deliver

  
When his father came home in a mood, Clint’s mother would usher him and Barney into their room and tell them to lock the door and not open it for any reason.  
  
He never wanted to be a burden to anyone. Ever again.  
  
Then he was taken by Loki and the Tesseract, and he learned what it was like to look at your comrades from the eye of a monster. Natasha fought Clint with teeth and knives and nails for the sake of Clint, and it took him months to understand why that bothered him so much.  
  
She never should have had to do that.  
  
So he strove to aim better, hit farther, and think faster, so that would never happen again.  
  
He failed.  
  
“I won’t do it, Clint.” Of course she wouldn’t. She even thought he'd been joking when he first asked her, because this flew in the face of every moral she’d been grasping at since she left the service of the Red Room, it would strain every friendship and alliance she’d made, the family they’d built together. There were only a handful of things he could ask her that he knew she would say no to, this was one of them.  
  
Then, she turned to walk away from him, and he said through gritted teeth words he swore he’d never say, “You owe me.”  
  
Natasha couldn’t have hated him more if he’d slapped her, and he could tell. Every expectation she’d ever had about him, and he’d just thrown them in her face like a bad drink.  
  
His mess. He should have cleaned it up.  
  
He couldn’t clean it up alone.


End file.
